When the Calzedonia Group was founded over 30 years ago, no one could have imagined that something called ‘the Internet’ would open up a world of customers far beyond Italy.
Fortunately, the Calzedonia Group team not only managed to adapt to the tsunami called eCommerce, but transformed into a company capable of bringing its high-quality fashion to anyone, anywhere, through any channel.
Founded in Verona in the mid-1980s, the Calzedonia Group quickly grew to more than 5,000 stores in about 50 countries. Unlike many others in the fashion industry that offer a single identity replicated across local markets, Calzedonia stands out by offering a range of unique brands. This approach has allowed the company to be highly targeted toward the customers it cultivates and the products it offers them.
Besides its namesake’s classic hosiery and swimwear, for example, the group’s brands include:
Anyone who has visited a Calzedonia store has already experienced the high-quality service its staff provides to make shopping easier. However, with more and more people looking for the latest fashions through digital channels, the company recognized the need to deliver a similar level of assistance online.
According to Davide Ambrosini, Web Marketing IT Coordinator at Calzedonia Group, this means approaching shoppers on the Internet as though the company is offering a bespoke service, rather than merely selling products.
“It’s about telling stories and providing customers with information so they can find what they really need,” he said. “This must be offered in real time across the various channels we manage daily.”
It also requires getting in front of customers before they’ve even engaged with one of Calzedonia Group’s brands. When someone is searching for the latest styles on a search engine like Google, for example, they might see plenty of the standard results from other firms, but not results that highlight what Calzedonia Group’s brands offer in terms of quality.
When Calzedonia Group began a significant overhaul of its online infrastructure, Ambrosini said the company needed to ensure product feed data was accurate. Updating the entire catalog could take a long time, and additional work would be required to connect to the existing eCommerce infrastructure. Finally, it was important for Ambrosini and his team to work with a partner that offered flexible and scalable support to handle everything from small requests to assistance with larger projects.
“It wasn’t just about activating a feed,” he said. “It was about being part of the team that would help us launch our new eCommerce infrastructure.”
Calzedonia Group powered its eCommerce and global expansion through advanced product feed management provided by Highstreet.io. By optimizing product types, promotional IDs, and custom labels, the company can manage sales and marketing across its brand portfolio, as well as details such as inventories and language in multiple geographic areas.
Highstreet.io’s technology is also helping Calzedonia Group manage five different warehouses through an integration with Channel Advisor, with complete and incremental inventories for multiple product listings.
Some of the many marketing channels Calzedonia Group brands sell through via Highstreet.io technology include Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram, Kelkoo, Livestory, Webgain, Smartgift, Criteo, Pinterest and Rakuten.
Calzedonia Group has already seen improved clickthrough rates for brands that have been using Highstreet.io’s product feed management and eCommerce integrations. Ambrosini also highlighted some overarching benefits such as:
Ambrosini said Highstreet.io’s enhanced product feed management platform allows Calzedonia Group to customize what kind of content it provides. This flexibility extends to any platform on which it needs to be present, as well as any country and any partner.
As the group continues to grow, Highstreet.io’s technology gives Calzedonia a way to immediately act upon new opportunities.
“We need to be close to every part of the business and understand its needs,” he said. “Now, whatever the business requirements and the technology that supports them, we know that 99% of the time we can achieve the desired result.”
As a leading platform for inspiring and converting eCommerce customers, Salesforce Commerce Cloud was a natural addition to Calzedonia Group’s digital transformation strategy.
Ambrosini said the company quickly understood the advantages of the platform thanks to Highstreet.io’s integration for Salesforce Commerce Cloud. The combination of the two technologies allowed the company to accelerate and simplify the process of acquiring product data and managing it more effectively.
“Many years ago, when we relied on our previous eCommerce infrastructure, we might have had to wait a couple of days to update the feed when products were out of stock. We could arrive one morning and discover there had been a problem overnight,” he said. “This integration is very well designed and, as we evolved toward our new eCommerce infrastructure, it offered a real advantage, especially considering all the brands and markets we need to manage.”
Calzedonia Group has also reaped the rewards of Highstreet.io’s integration with Salesforce’s platform for helping brands manage campaigns and increase their ability to personalize based on segmentation. This not only includes the core functionality but the artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities of Einstein, which is now embedded across Salesforce’s entire portfolio of applications.
“In the past, we couldn’t activate all possible channels due to the complexity of our catalog,” Ambrosini explained. “The way Highstreet.io’s integration allows us to receive data and then export it to Salesforce Marketing Cloud not only enables us to activate on any channel but also to launch predictive campaigns.”
Ambrosini and his team constantly study fashion and eCommerce trends to ensure Calzedonia Group always meets customers wherever they are. However, in practice, it can be difficult for companies to connect their product feed to major marketplaces without spending a lot of time, effort, and money.
“If we want to grow, it’s about analyzing all global marketplaces and recognizing that some are more strategic in certain countries than others,” he said. Highstreet.io’s multi-marketplace integration capabilities have allowed Calzedonia Group to sell on major online destinations, including Amazon, Mango, Lamoda, and soon Zalando.
Successful eCommerce requires retailers to adopt the old saying “Think globally, act locally.” Depending on where Calzedonia Group brands are selling, for example, the eCommerce infrastructure must account for highly specific promotions, pricing, loyalty subscriptions, and other variations. Getting this information right is critical to building brand trust and long-term customer loyalty.
“Sometimes it’s not so easy to capture the right user with the right promotion,” Ambrosini said. “Highstreet.io allows us to plan what we want to do and then weave business logic into eCommerce fields so we can send the correct data to the appropriate platforms.”
What works today online won’t necessarily work forever. Ambrosini said part of the value Calzedonia Group sees from Highstreet.io is being able to take its business to new channels with ease and speed.
“If a social media service like Snapchat starts offering a way to shop directly on its platform and we’re not able to be there, that’s a huge missed opportunity.”
“If a brand faces great complexity in terms of catalog, different categories, many items, and prices to sell worldwide, I highly recommend the Highstreet.io solution.”
Receive updates and exclusive content
